Did Big Sis’s Anti-Gun Policies Kill an ATF Agent?

On December 14th, Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was killed in an Arizona border shootout, presumably with Mexican illegals. Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano eulogized him a week later, saying “he put service before self, which is the mark of heroism.” After the Arizona shootings, the Left gleefully blamed conservatives from Palin to Rush and pushed new gun legislation of all kinds. But although Big Sis herself flew to the scene of Terry’s death, took over the investigation, promised justice and quick action and later presented his eulogy, the legacy media and liberal politicos throughout the nation have fallen silent. No one has been blamed, no new gun legislation has been demanded.

In fact, the ATF-proposed Long Gun Registry for the border states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas; supported by liberals everywhere; and to have gone into effect on January 5th has been suddenly discarded. The funding necessary to implement the program has been refused the ATF by the White House Budget Office. So what happened? Why has this crisis been permitted to go to waste?

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In 2005, the ATF created Project Gunrunner “to stem the flow of firearms into Mexico and to drug gangs.” But there is one small problem. In spite of the contentions of Michael Bloomberg’s “Mayors Against Illegal Guns” and other gun control groups which claim that 90% of Mexican “crime guns” originate in the United States, there is no massive flow of firearms into Mexico from the U.S. So, “to justify the existence of the ATF’s Project Gunrunner…and thus the agency itself…the ATF stands accused of letting buyers purchase rifles in the US, knowing that the guns were headed for Mexican drug cartels. Worse, they may have literally walked the guns into Mexico themselves.”

Whistleblowers at the ATF have informed Senate Judiciary Committee member Charles Grassley, R-IA, that gun stores in Arizona and Texas were told by the ATF to sell weapons to known straw buyers for transport into Mexico. A letter from Grassley to acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson states: “Members of the Judiciary Committee have received numerous allegations that the ATF sanctioned sales of hundreds of assault weapons to suspected straw purchasers who then allegedly transported these weapons throughout the southwestern border area and into Mexico.” And the kicker: “two of the weapons were then allegedly used in a firefight on December 14, 2010, against Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, killing agent Brian Terry.”

So the ATF instructed gun stores in border states to sell weapons to known straw buyers for Mexican drug cartels and helped make certain the weapons reached their intended Mexican owners. And this happened to make sure the agency would receive the funding necessary to prevent the sale and transportation of arms to Mexico? Incredible!

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Does all of this explain why the names of those arrested in the Terry murder case have yet to be released? Why charges have yet to be filed? Why facts about gun tracing reports from the murder scene have not been made public? Why the Long Gun Registry demands of the ATF have been swept away? Why Janet Napolitano changed her schedule, raced to the scene of the crime and then to Michigan to deliver the eulogy for Brian Terry? Why Andrew Traver’s installation as the new head of the ATF is on hold, as the administration would presumably not want a televised hearing bringing up the Terry killing and the ATF’s possible involvement? Here’s hoping Senator Grassley will answer all of these questions.